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UW-Madison Staff Say Mold Concerns Haven't Been Addressed
University Promises Better Communication, Action Plan
http://www.channel3000.com/news/14314191/detail.html
UPDATED: 7:30 am CDT October 11, 2007
MADISON, Wis. -- Workers at Ingraham Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus said they continue to struggle with serious mold and air quality problems there, and on Wednesday university environmental health and physical plant officials met with staff to update them on progress and hear their concerns.
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University officials met with a group of about 30 Ingraham Hall staff and faculty, and they heard about workers' concerns and frustrations for two hours.
Some said the meeting was called way too late and blasted the UW-Madison's lack of systematic communication and the response to mold and water leak problems so far. Some said it has been nearly a year since various problems first cropped up and were reported to the university.
Anita Lightfoot said the university's response has been too little, too late. She works at Ingraham Hall year round and said she's long noticed air quality problems. She said Wednesday's meeting was long overdue.
"I, as probably everybody else here, would like to know why it took so long," Lightfoot said.
Chicano-Latin Studies Program Administrator Jillian Alpire said she has had numerous problems in her office, including flooding, mold and air quality concerns that she said make working in it impossible.
"I've been saying for six months that, my room -- I can't breathe in there," Alpire said.
She too is fed up with what some believe has been much too slow action on serious air quality issues and health complaints.
Ingraham Hall is home to lots of academic student advising offices and ethnic studies programs and, for weeks or months, to mold, water leaks and other air quality concerns, staff there said.
Health complaints in the American Indian Studies program, housed on the third floor, got so bad the director said he felt compelled to shut it down.
"Everyone was complaining about health problems, and I felt like I couldn't tell them they had to work in there," Paul Nadasdy said.
Denise Wiyaka, one staff member with health complaints, said she was prescribed an inhaler after the incidents.
"Each time we spent any significant time in our offices, our throats and our eyes would start to burn so we could only be in there an hour and then we would have to leave," Wiyaka said.
Summer Boyd, who helps run two ethnic studies programs, said she can't use either of her two offices. In one office, she said her entire family suffered severe chest pains after a matter of minutes.
She and other staff said that UW-Madison officials still haven't resolved their concerns -- or communicated when they will -- five weeks after a concerted effort began.
"It seemed like something was going to happen, and here we are five weeks later," Nadasdy said.
Andy Garcia, the director of UW-Madison's Environmental Health and Safety Department, conceded problems with things like communication.
"I do agree that some of the communication that has taken place as you have said and could have been a little bit more coordinated," Garcia said.
Testing so far shows some elevated levels of mold, including the possibly dangerous aspergillus, which tested above the target level taken outside.
But officials said there is no need to panic. Officials said one of the high-level mold tests was done improperly and the others aren't high enough to merit a safety concern.
Meanwhile, some sort of action plan is promised by Monday at the latest, as is better communication and temporary office space for those now working at home and meeting with students wherever they can find space on campus.
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